Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 19

 Chapter 19: The Fourth Pity Cap

A few days after renewing my resolve.

While hunting on Floor 17 of the Hachioji Dungeon, I hit my fourth pity cap without much fuss.

"Guess by the fourth time, it doesn't really stir up any feelings anymore."

"I'm not sure that's a good thing, honestly?"

Lapis gave a wry smile at my blunt honesty.

People are creatures of habit. You can get used to anything.

I'd already finished pulling the gacha and was back down to Lv1. All that was left was to tap "SSR Exchange," which is now showing on my Status.

My stats had gone up a bit since last time. Out of 60 pulls, I'd gotten 20 stat orbs.

A bit of a low roll, I guess. More misses than usual this time.

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[Lv] 1

[HP] 323/323

[MP] 269/269

[STR] 10+105

[VIT] 8+96

[AGI] 10+99

[DEX] 8+96

[INT] 11+120

[MND] 12+126

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Even so, my stats added up to a total of 701. For a normal Explorer, that was the kind of strength you'd only reach after passing Lv 50.

And reaching the pity cap for the fourth time overall meant I'd pulled the gacha 400 times in total. The results, though, had been genuinely pathetic.

I'll skip over the huge pile of R-rarity gacha drops that weren't orbs. Mostly potions, magic stones, and lukewarm equipment. Oh, and snacks for Lapis.

SR prizes came to 46 in total. 46 out of 40 ten-pulls.

There's no way that SR rate is actually 4.5%. Only 6 of those came from outside the guaranteed slot, you know?

The SR slot mostly gave Skill Orbs and equipment. Plus furniture for Lapis.

And the SSR, with its 0.5% drop rate? A shocking zero!

Give me a break. Get out here, devs.

I'd sworn off relying on luck a long time ago.

"It's probably because you don't pray before you pull, you know. Come on, turn the presentation effects back on and get properly worked up every time the rate-up kicks in~"

The fairy of Gacha beside me said something that superstitious. For what it's worth, the sound and light effects were still fully cut, same as ever.

Every so often, this one tries to drag me into full-blown gacha addiction.

Yeah, she really is a spy after all.

"I've already got all the cult religion I need, thanks."

"A cult religion!?"

I'm not wrong.

* * *

Still, even a gacha system this stingy came with one saving grace.

The pity cap.

Pull the gacha 100 times in total, and I got to choose one of three SSRs. Most of the options were Unique Skills, and so far I'd taken a Skill every single time I hit the cap. Here's what I had so far.

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[Unique Skills]

　・Gacha　・Triple EXP Gain

　・Item Box　・Status Disguise

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First, there's "Gacha" — I'd had that one from the very start. Somehow, it even came with a fairy attached.

Next, "Triple EXP Gain." I'd gotten this one at my first pity cap. Thanks to it, the number of gacha pulls I could manage afterward shot up dramatically.

At my second pity cap, I picked up "Item Box."

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・Item Box

　Summons an invisible storage space that any object can be freely stored in or taken out of

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A rare Skill, but also one famous as the subject of urban legends. According to the stories, an Explorer who once got this Skill was scooped up by the government, worked to the bone and ultimately killed by some hostile organization. Rest in peace, whoever you were.

Since there was no way I could risk anyone finding out about it, I still hadn't fully mapped out all the details of what it could do. At the very least, I'd confirmed it could store every single piece of furniture in my apartment.

Right now, I was using it as storage for all the items, equipment, and magic stones I'd gotten from gacha.

I'd been keeping everything at home up until now, but it'd be a problem if a burglar ever broke in and found it all. If anything, managing all of that had started becoming enough of a headache that it was exactly why I'd chosen "Item Box" in the first place.

For what it's worth, I still made sure to keep drops from my day-to-day exploring in my bag, like normal. I only used "Item Box" when pulling the gacha somewhere with no one else around.

Being able to store things like armor on the spot had made life considerably more convenient, though.

* * *

What I chose at my third pity cap was "Status Disguise."

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・Status Disguise

　Freely alter and falsify how one's Status is displayed to others

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With this, even someone with as many secrets as me could finally afford to make his Status public. Here's the disguised Status I put together.

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[Name] Suzukaze Touya

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[Lv] 31

[HP] 215/215

[MP] 124/124

[STR] 75

[VIT] 70

[AGI] 80

[DEX] 75

[INT] 60

[MND] 64

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[SP] 3

[Skills Possessed]

　・Appraisal　・Detection Lv3　・Swordsmanship Lv3

　・Physical Enhancement Lv3　・Herculean Strength Lv2　・Fortitude Lv2

　・Slash Lv1　・Slasher Lv1

[Unique Skill]

　・Support Fairy

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I'd set it up as the kind of Status you'd expect from someone right on the verge of graduating out of D-Rank. Since I was solo, I'd pitched the Level a little higher than average.

The overall build leaned toward a front-line swordsman style — a build that secured a reasonable amount of evasion and toughness, then cleared out enemies with sword attacks.

With numbers like these, it was a plausible baseline for someone getting by solo in the trap-free Upper Levels. And of course, the Unique Skill was the cover story: "Support Fairy."

I'd make sure to keep updating this fake Status going forward, without fail. That way, even if someone got a look at it by some chance, I'd have nothing to worry about.

For what it's worth, I'd actually shown this disguised Status to Shimotsuki-san the other day, with the excuse that I wanted her opinion on whether I could clear Floor 20.

When she saw the Status, Shimotsuki-san's face showed a flicker of suspicion. But she quickly settled back into her usual smile and gave me her blessing: "At this rate, you're practically at C-Rank already."

Judging by that reaction, she'd probably already caught on that I had some kind of trick up my sleeve.

Back when I first disclosed "Support Fairy," I hadn't shown her my Status. But this time, under the guise of asking for advice, I'd shown it to her without a second thought. Something about that must have struck her as off.

Still, there was nothing suspicious about the Status I'd actually shown her. On the surface, it was just a solo Explorer with a Unique Skill of questionable practicality and slightly above-average stats.

If I did have some kind of trick, the natural conclusion would be that "Support Fairy" itself carried some hidden special effect. Honestly, there was every sign she'd already landed on that exact suspicion.

She'd also brought up, in an offhand way, the fact that I'd been bringing back more drops than other Explorers for a while now. That was probably her own way of telling me, "Don't push it too far."

In other words, she had no intention of digging deeper into whatever I was hiding — if anything, she was quietly helping me keep it covered up.

We'd only known each other for about three months, but knowing Shimotsuki-san's character, I doubted this guess was too far off.

A partnership in crime I was genuinely grateful for. I'd make sure never to do anything genuinely wrong, so she'd never end up on the losing end of it later.

Well, in reality, I was lying through my teeth about plenty of things, including the Status itself.

"Actually, hang on, could she see through that the Status was disguised if things went badly? This logic would hold up as I only disclosed it deliberately once I'd gained the ability to fake it."

"Ryouka-san's just that sharp, huh."

Either way, having Shimotsuki-san as my go-to receptionist had clearly been the right call.

"One of these days, I'll get her to be my real dedicated receptionist."

"I'm all for it!"

Much as I hated to admit it, Lapis and I actually agreed on that one.

"You just said 'much as I hated to'!!"